Viacom rebrands Channel 5 portfolio

The new-look logo and branding will feature across Channel 5, 5 USA, 5 Star and its video-on-demand platform from 6am on Thursday morning.

The new logo breaks up the number 5 and makes use of bold purple, pink and orange colours.

The creative team, led by Jody Malam, has also developed new idents for Channel 5 and 5 USA.

Jo Bacon, the vice president of marketing at Viacom, said the idents for the main channel are designed to be "little films in their own right… that show a range of human emotional content".

She added: "The idea is that they reflect real life that is heightened by five."

There are four idents showing five in different ways in a person’s life. For example "waves" show a lady at sea who spots five whales, and "rainbows" shows a beautiful Scottish landscape with five rainbows.

For 5 USA, the team made use of drones to film large parts of the US. These images are then overlayed with different shows.

Demand 5 will be rebranded to My5 on Channel 5’s platform and will be known as 5 on other platforms such as Sky and Virgin.

Bacon said that Viacom wanted to bring the branding up-to-date with the new content that the channels have been featuring, such as The X Files.

There will also be new American shows on 5 Star including Heroes Reborn, The Magicians, The Shannara Chronicles.

Bacon explained that the channel is going through the "biggest content journey". She said: "It’s going to have its own commissions and be younger and more energetic."

"Obviously BBC Three is an opportunity for all broadcasters and everyone in the content world.

"I do think we’re strengthening our 16- to 34-year-old audience but we want people to come to us attitudinally not just demographically, and we needed to bring the spirit of 5 across the brands in a way that’s right for the content.

"It’s good timing that we’ve got 5 Star into good shape at the time that BBC Three goes off air."